Meeting Minutes for September 2007 Board Meeting
Date: 9/10/07
Time: 6:30 pm
Location: The Common Man, Concord NH
Attendees : Bruce Smith, Mike Dion, Alan Legerlotz, Gordon Geick, Laura Fallis, Paul Michali, Dana Sion, Michael Morin, Cassandra Vorisek-Creto, Alvin Legerlotz, David Harrison.
Meeting was called to order at 6:45.
Bruce began the meeting with the subject of the Chapter Logo. The logo we decided upon on in August was submitted to BMW CCA national for approval. An email back from National indicated that everything with the logo was acceptable, except for the roundel incorporated into it. Bruce acquired the correct image and the logo proof as been updated to include it. Bruce will resubmit the logo and expects a quick response indicating approval by national. Gordon reminded people that we need to get the new logo sent up to Winter People ASAP once we can use it. This carries through for all logos we have on the web site and other printed material.
The next subject was Board Meeting minutes. Alan indicated that the meeting minutes for August are ready and have been sent to the board for approval before being posted. Alan asked that any minutes for January through March be sent to him to be posted as well. Alan will not be at the October meeting because he has a conflict on that Monday night.
Bruce asked the group about switching the board meetings from Monday nights to Tuesday nights. Alan said he can’t make Monday nights for the next month or two. Paul can’t do Tuesday or Thursday nights, and that is a long term conflict. The decision was made to keep the meetings as the 1st Monday and Mike will do a written report in instances when he can’t make it.
Expense reimbursement from August was the next topic. Bruce said that he will get the IRS mileage allowance info and update the form we approved in August. The form will be posted on the web site. Peter B will hopefully have guidelines for the next meeting.
Laura gave the membership report. Membership for September was 703 which was down from 712 in August. Laura isn’t sure why we’re losing members. Bruce asked that Laura contact members that have allowed their membership to lapse. Bruce said that he just renewed and the national web site is broken. Laura has been handling membership inquiries for us. A member from California is going to visit NH nad will see Laura during her trip.
Cassandra did the SEC report. There was an August meeting and the next one is 9/26. The Go Karting event generated 90% positive feedback. The only negative comments were around the length of the training session and that people weren’t out on the track fast enough. Rather than having so much coffee, people would have appreciated more variety of refreshments. The holiday party is the next SEC event. A deposit has already been sent to CR Sparks. The SEC is working on the Holiday Party plans. Paul needs menu and registration information as soon as it is available so it can be posted on the web site. Cassandra will use a charity event she’d involved with to distribute brochures about the club. Bruce asked about sponsorship packages for social events and Cassandra said that a proposal is in the works. Bruce indicated that value for sponsorship dollar is definitely a key factor from people he’s spoken to. Alan asked about the entertainment and if it would be the same sort of thing as last year. The SEC is looking into an improv group to do something along the lines of “Who’s line is it anyway?”. Paul asked about whether there is new “Kelly’s Cause” info to post. As usual Paul needs content and can’t be expected to generate it all himself. Bruce will have Dick ask Allen about content since they talk to one another often. The next meeting is 9/26 at the Common Man in Concord.
Mike gave the financial report. Mike said we’re doing well, we are about $6500 in the black at this point. We have $26,800 in the checkbook as of today. There are still some expenses from the Summer Heat driving school, but the major ones such as the track have been paid. We’ve made money so far on driving events, and that’s a positive change since last year. We think that almost everyone who wanted a refund or credit from the cancelled April events has received on. We have not, as yet, paid a printing bill and we don’t know what’s happening with that because the one check that we did sent hasn’t been cashed yet by the vendor. Bruce will call Martin to ask about the printing costs and to find out what our current amount of owed is. We need to verify with Martin that we can get our proper reimbursements for sending out profiles to other chapters. Revenue every month has been about $800 from membership. We have a few more dollars coming in for the Mt Washington Hill Climb and the Summer Heat driving school. We haven’t processed all of Summer Heat yet, but we’re pretty sure we’re in the black for the event. All of the credits are what’s causing a delay on closing the books on the event. Alvin said that we have some liability on the hill climb with only 8 registrants signed up. Erik and others have been beating the bushes and we think that we have 15 participants total between people who have already signed up and others that have committed to do so. Gordon pointed out that this is a problem with promotion. In his opinion this is a repeat of some other issues we’ve had in the past. Paul mentioned getting people to sign up early with a small deposit to hold spots. Maybe next year we can open up all registration at the same time for all events. Dana said that he has seen people with their entire events schedule for the year done by March or April and others at the meeting agreed. Dana asked about club credit/debit cards for each of the board members and the chairman of the DEC and SEC. Mike said that this has been talked about in the past, but that he’s been surprised in a couple of cases by charges that have been made without informing him. The surprise charges were small and would have been approved, but the fact that they were a surprise does not support the idea of more cards out there being a good idea. At this point we don’t plan on issuing any more than the couple that are out there.
Dana put together a Marketing Director job description as requested at the last meeting. Bruce sent out the job description to the board just prior to the meeting tonight. We’ll plan on voting on it at the next meeting. Mike Moran suggest that those of us who review it do “track changes” so its easy to see people’s edits. Paul mentioned a “google” function for that. Dana will work with Paul to set up a goofle version of the document and we’ll distribute it. The target is to be ready for the next meeting.
Bruce volunteered a few meetings ago to follow up with the By-Laws but got busy and didn’t do it. Bruce now has a goal to get a revision done and submitted to BMW CCA national by December. Cassandra will help and Paul will get them to us.
Gordon gave a DEC Report. The next DEC meeting is Monday 9/24 at the Common Man in Concord. Registration needs to open for the October Event ASAP. We need to get pricing done first, and that’s the reason it has not opened yet. We did graduated pricing last year. Alvin has a formula worked out for discounts: 1 day: $190, 2 days: $355, 3 days: $495. We need to run this by Boston, so Bruce will call Joe Marko and run it by him. We need more instructors than we had at Summer Heat and Alan will send out mail to get instructors signed up. Alvin asked about racers and if they get a run group each day. At the DEC meeting we need to figure out what’s happening with the racers on Friday. Dick and Bruce are race stewards at this event, not WMC people, so we need a race chair and registrar for operational things. The SEC needs to know if they are to put on a reception at the October Event. Gordon said that Saturday night with Beer and Wine and Cheese and Crackers would probably be plenty, but that people would enjoy it. We can probably just do this in the garages, but Phil was going to see if we could do it in the restaurant. Summer Heat was very successful, especially given the lack of promotion of the event itself. There were lots of newbies and a good mix of cars. The instructors were a little over worked and we had a couple of new instructors from other clubs, so consistency was not always achieved. Mike Dion mentioned sponsorship and the fact that we haven’t invoiced anyone yet this year. We need a pathway for Dick or the marketing person to get them invoiced. Mike also mentioned at the P.O. Box is far from him and that bills sometimes sit in it. Bruce said he will talk with Dick about what we need for racer time on the schedule at the October Event and we’ll open registration ASAP. Paul offered to put sponsorship rates up on the web site. Paul needs the info to post. Gordon suggested that we integrate it with the publication schedule for the profile. The goal is to make this easy for sponsors to find and understand. Gordon talked about relationship building with the Audi club and that it is continuing. Gordon is encouraged by the Summer Heat turn out.
Paul reviewed the web survey he ran. There were 15 replies and the results were as follows: The presence of the “Ask Us” page wasn’t known to 1/3 of the respondents and the same was true of the club store. 13% of people don’t look at the meeting minutes at all. The Calendar and Events descriptions are the most used areas on the site. The capabilities people wanted were mostly photo an gallery related. There was a discussion about people wanting photos on the site and how to get them there. We talked about getting a cheap camera for the club so that people can do “point and shoot” candid photos of the event. We need event write ups as well.
Bruce talked about Elections. Bruce sent an article to Martin to have people refer to the web site for election info. At this point we need to do something for an email blast about elections. We need the dates and specific info about how to nominate, make candidacy statements, vote, etc… Paul as been working on the voting mechanism on the web site and thinks he has it all set now. Paul can tie people into the voting page through their registration number with national. We need to make voting easy or people won’t do it. Bruce asked is we are tying elections to the holiday party. The proposal from Paul is Sept 1 to Oct 28 for nominations and candidacy statements, Nov 1 to Dec 1 for voting electronically and Dec 4 for voting in person. We’ll send out a postcard with the info, but there will be no mail in ballots. Voting will be electronic and in person only. Martin is prepared for any profile related tasks tied to elections. There were some questions regarding elections. 1) Will the bylaws be ready by Nov 1? 2) Do we have other questions to ask people about? If so, what are they? 3) There are 4 vote in positions according to our bylaws. Is this correct?
Paul is going to do a tutorial for Gordon and Laura at the DEC meeting on 9/24. This will be about web site tasks and activities.
Dana proposed that the club purchase an EZ-up 10 x 10 canopy for $147 (sale price) for use at club events. Alan asked if a 10 x 10 is enough and suggested that for that price we buy two of them. A vote was taken and Dana was authorized to purchase two canopies for use at club events. These will likely be used for the first time at the October driving school.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:20.